Fans hopeful despite long odds

Rockies faithful don't want to see season come to an end

By C.J. Moore / MLB.com

DENVER -- As Rockies fans quickly filed out of Coors Field after the longest nine-inning game in World Series history, they kept hope alive.

"If they can win 21 of 22, they can win four straight," one Rockies fan said.
The Rockies and their fans have braved worse things than a 3-0 deficit. They had never won a postseason series until this year, had only made one playoff appearance in franchise history (1995) and just this week survived a malicious computer attack.

The first World Series game ever at Coors Field -- with a sellout crowd of 49,983 -- went by without a malicious attack (other than the Red Sox's 10-5 beating of the Rockies) and was played in temperatures that reached the 30s by the end of the game. It was 45 degrees at first pitch, which marked the fifth coldest game in the World Series since 1982.

The cold didn't effect Lynne Dettmann, a fan since the team debuted in 1993.

"I'm used to that," she said. "I've come to games in the snow so many times. Weather is not a problem."

Dettmann even wore sandals with purple Rockies straps. She went sock-less until the later innings, when she put on her Rockies socks.

Other fans went shirtless (and purple). There were purple Mohawks, purple faces and the Rockies hope to have purple hearts by the end of the series.

Rockies fans felt wounded and some said "depressed" until Matt Holliday provided hope in the seventh inning with a three-run homer, which set off the loudest cheers of the night.

However, from the first pitch to the final out, Rockies fans cheered like they had waited an eternity -- or 15 years -- for a World Series.

"We waited for a long time to even get Major League baseball and now we've got a World Series," said Denver resident Steve Jamieson, 47.

Jamieson came with his friend's elderly father, who was at the first games in 1993 and just wanted to live long enough to see the Rockies in the World Series.

Younger fans, like the Leslie brothers -- Cole, 20 and Eric, 24 -- have been going to Rockies games since 1993, and they also found it well worth the wait.

"It's been so electric," Eric said. "We've been to so many games. I've been to 30-plus games this year and it's just so electric being at this game. You can't really explain it with the towels and the energy. It's like a football game almost. It's incredible."